Insight Spring 2020

Medical Aid in Dying: A Letter to Governor Murphy Aileen Cui ’20 This assignment was the culmination of our work in Medical Aid in Dying.

In August of 2019, Governor Phil Murphy signed into law the “Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act,” which allows doctors to offer lethal doses of drugs only to patients with less than six months to live. Our task was to choose a point of view (list included economist, palliative care specialist, psychologist, and disability rights advocate) and argue our position on the proposed law.

Dear Governor Phil Murphy, Hello, my name is Aileen Cui, and I am an employee at Bausch Health Pharmaceuticals, formerly known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals. I thank you for inviting me to the New Jersey Bioethics Panel and valuing my opinion.

Based on my twenty years in the pharmaceutical company industry, I can safely say that despite international precedence, I have inherent hesitations about the implementation of New Jersey’s “Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act.” Bausch Health is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving people’s lives and advancing global health by marketing products in the therapeutic areas of eye care, gastroenterology, and dermatology (About Us Who We Are). The company has a location in New Jersey, so the passing of the bill has a direct impact on the company’s running and allocation of resources. This is largely due to the fact that our company has sole ownership over the drug Seconal. Originally, Seconal was used as a sedative or treatment option for insomnia, but it has since become the standard drug that doctors prescribe to patients who are seeking Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) (Riley). Suddenly, the drug is prescribed for an “off-brand” purpose: death and essentially, its benign intent is completely changing. By intent, I mean the reasoning behind the determination to act in a certain way. As I previously mentioned, the well-minded intention of Bausch Health is to provide drugs that help alleviate pain, prevent infection, maintain health, and cure disease. In the case of MAID and the bill, the medication that our pharmaceutical company manufactures is being used for something that it was never designed for. Consequently, the drug and our company become inextricably linked to delivering death rather 14